The objective of the proposed research is to study the perception of auditory rhythms. The rationale underlying this work is that rhythms result from the interaction of various rhythmic subpatterns. Therefore, to meaningfully study rhythm, complex structures made up of levels of conflicting accent and grouping patterns must be used. To this end, the rhythmic stimuli are syncopated, placing two co-occurring subrhythms in conflict. The subject's task is to listen to the configuration, and then tap along with the meter. There is no given meter, the subjects must derive it from the interplay of the conflicting subrhythms. The significance of this work is twofold. The first is to study sufficiently "dense" rhythms. Only at an appropriate level of stimulus complexity, can the evident complexity of rhythmic perception emerge. Past research has used simple rhythmic structures and has yielded as impoverished theory of rhythmic perception. The second is to consider speech and music rhythms to be alternate realizations of the same type of perceptual structuring, which should lead to additional insights into the perception of each. Both emerge from a background of levels, in which the interpretation of one level affects the interpretation of all others.